Rona Curphy
President And CEO
Casa Grande Regional Medical Center
www.casagrandehospital.com
As president and CEO of Casa Grande Regional Medical Center, Rona Curphy has moved to the top of the medical field thanks to her years of dedication.
From 2002 to 2009, Curphy served as the chief nursing officer at the nonprofit community-based hospital in Casa Grande. When she was asked to be interim CEO in February 2009, she jumped at the new experience. Curphy saw it as an opportunity to grow in her profession and to learn new skills. About five months later, Curphy was named Casa Grande Regional Medical Center’s official president and CEO.
As president and CEO, Curphy works to ensure that the hospital implements the strategic plans adopted by the board of directors.
“My duties are making sure we meet our mission, our vision of organization, making sure people are on top of strategic goals, engaging partners, providing the best quality health care environment for them to practice in, and making sure the staff has a great environment to work in,” Curphy says.
Curphy emphasizes that in her role she tries to be a visible and active community member. She sits on the chambers of different cities, on an economic development board and attends events so the hospital will be viewed as a part of the community.
Although Curphy currently does not hold a position on the Arizona Hospital and Health Care Association’s (AzHHA) board or committees, she has been very active with the organization in the past. While serving on the patient safety committee, Curphy looked at new patient initiatives throughout the state.
“I had to look at everybody’s concerns and issues as we made decisions going forward,” Curphy says.
She also served on the Campaign for Caring committee, where she ended up chairing one of four task forces. On the government affairs committee, Curphy helped give legislators ideas on what stands the hospital and health care community wanted them to take on issues. She points out that AzHHA is an important organization to the community and to hospitals.
“AzHHA is our voice across Arizona,” Curphy says. “Having one voice where lots of members can give ideas, gives us opportunities to work with the Legislature to get things done.”
Curphy says another key benefit of AzHHA is that it offers the opportunity to network nationwide. But Curphy adds, a big challenge AzHHA faces is being able to successfully manage networking events during a very busy time in the health care industry. With all of the new legislation on health care being written and passed, it is easy to get caught up in focusing solely on the issues, rather than the networking aspect of the organization, she says.
Curphy wants to see more members take advantage of the opportunities that AzHHA presents, and to get involved in the events the organization hosts. In addition, Curphy says AzHHA has to focus on maintaining and recruiting new members, “… and making sure (the organization is) not too costly for members, or difficult for members to participate. If they make the cost too much, there will only be a few members, and the end result doesn’t allow for great networking.
“I think it is up to (AzHHA) to get out to member hospitals, to get people out there to say, ‘Get involved,’” Curphy says.
